STRANGERS SAVE LIVES OF BOCA COUPLE

Three strangers saved an elderly couple from drowning in their submerged car Friday morning in a canal west of Boca Raton, firefighters said.

Together, Ricky D. Seymore, Matthew Bisesto and Keith Carracher used a sledgehammer to break into the car and pull the couple to safety.

They also shared disgust at the dozens of people who stood around the grassy embankment doing nothing. Morris Dolinsky, 81, of Century Village, west of Boca Raton, was driving west on Boca Rio Road near Glades Road when he apparently accelerated his 1989 white Ford Taurus four-door, plummeting into the canal about 8:40 a.m., said Lt. Albert Sierra of Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue. Dolinsky's wife, Pauline, 80, was in the passenger seat.

Both are in serious but stable condition, said William Dey, director of emergency services at West Boca Medical Center.

Seymore was driving to work when he saw the sinking vehicle. He called 911 and pulled off Boca Rio Road.

"The moment I saw a hand, I threw down the cell phone and jumped in the water and didn't have much time to think of anything else," said Seymore, 36, a former lifeguard.

Bisesto and Carracher were on Glades Road, waiting for the light to make a left on Boca Rio Road. Both men ran the red light when they saw the half-submerged car. In the water, Seymore screamed for the couple to open the doors, while Bisesto, manager of Thomas Concrete of Florida in Boca Raton, went to his car to get a sledgehammer.

The submerged car was sealed tight.

"The guy was in the car begging me," said Carracher, 41. "He was saying, 'Help me, help me, help me."'

When Bisesto and Carracher busted the rear window, bread and other groceries floated out into the black water of the canal, Seymore said.

"Another 20 seconds or so and they would have drowned," said Bisesto, 31. "Thank God, I had that hammer."

Seymore said he dragged Morris Dolinsky to shore, grabbing him under the arms from the back, while the other two struggled to free Pauline Dolinsky from the front.

"It was really sad just to see their eyes go limp in the car," Carracher said. Morris Dolinsky was confused and shaken, Seymore said.

"He said that the last thing he remembered was sitting at the red light," Seymore said.

Morris Dolinsky told him that his children were flying in from Long Island, N.Y., that afternoon.

But the saddest fact of the ordeal, all three men said, was what most people were not doing.

"The worst part was that there was 15 or 20 people on the bank not doing anything," Seymore said.

The three strangers who saved the elderly couple were heroes, said fire-rescue Lt. Kevin McNamara.

"If it wasn't for them, we would've been digging them out of the canal," McNamara said.